AKHILESH SINGH YADAV came through New Delhi this week for a victory lap of sorts, more than a week after he upended Indian politics. He met with many of the country’s top leaders, accepting their congratulations, before he returned later in the week to India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, where he was sworn in as new chief minister. Everywhere Mr. Yadav went, the irresistible scent of power followed.

Grown men flocked to him, plying him with bouquets of flowers and boxes of sweets, bending to touch his feet, pressing to be near him. The display of deference is a ritual of Indian politics, yet in a country governed by old men, Mr. Yadav represents something new: At 38, he is now India’s youngest chief minister, overseeing a state with more than 200 million people, more of a country than a state.

“People have a lot of hope in me, that I can do something good,” he said in an interview this week, as his cellphone buzzed with messages.

In a country where the public hunger for change is palpable, yet where politics often seems unchangeable, Mr. Yadav is suddenly, unexpectedly, a symbol of a new generation, featured on newspaper front pages and magazine covers, with photos of him riding his bicycle on campaign trips, as well as tidbits about his college affinity for the hard-rock band Metallica, his passion for soccer and accounts of his “love marriage.”

The election in Uttar Pradesh, conducted in stages in February, with the results announced this month, was supposed to coronate India’s better-known new generation leader, Rahul Gandhi, the heir to the fabled Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, who made the state election a test of his popularity and political franchise. He failed to deliver, with voters instead endorsing Mr. Yadav.

Now all Mr. Yadav has to do is lift up the poorest state in India.

Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Yadav is the scion of a political family, if one rooted in the grittier, bare-knuckle traditions of Indian politics. His father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, is the founder of the regional Samajwadi Party, which drew support from Muslims and some of the lower Hindu castes, before falling out of favor in 2007.

The senior Mr. Yadav served three times as chief minister, but he oversaw an administration marred by corruption, as many party workers and officials were drawn from the ranks of toughs and mobsters. Even this year, half of the lawmakers elected from the Samajwadi Party had criminal cases pending against them, a pattern repeated in most parties competing in Uttar Pradesh.

What also made the party seem out of step were some of the positions espoused by the elder Mr. Yadav, who once opposed the use of English and computers as affronts to traditional Indian culture and village industries. To an aspirational young India, English and technology are the tools of upward mobility, a point not lost on the younger Mr. Yadav as he began to change the direction of his father’s party.

“India has changed a lot,” he said. “You see the amount of mobile phone penetration. It is huge here. People are slowly learning how to use computers. They want to move forward.”

AFTER a boyhood in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Yadav attended an engineering college in southern India before graduate school in Sydney, Australia, where he studied environmental engineering and tasted the wider world.

“There was a lot of development in Australia,” he recalled. “I had never seen this. It was a totally different world for me.”

He returned to India and soon met the woman he wanted to marry, even though her family was from a different caste and background, in a country where most marriages are still arranged. “There was a little hesitation,” Mr. Yadav recalled of his family’s reaction, but he persisted in what is known as a “love marriage” until his family consented.

He and his wife, Dimple, were married in November 1999, and three months later he was elected to the lower house of Parliament. He was 26, one of the youngest members of his incoming class, but he remained mostly out of the political limelight until his father lost power in Uttar Pradesh. The son then gradually assumed a bigger role in the Samajwadi Party, becoming the state president in 2009.

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In this year’s race, Mr. Yadav did not initially attract much attention in an election framed as a showdown between two of the country’s most powerful leaders, Mr. Gandhi and the state’s incumbent chief minister, Mayawati, who uses one name. But Mr. Yadav began working the state, riding his bicycle for 120 miles to lead a “yatra,” or march. He also adroitly repositioned his party to appeal to the modern sensibilities of the state’s growing number of urban voters: He promised to distribute free tablet computers to students and hammered away at a positive message in what became a dirty political fight.

To combat his party’s reputation for lawlessness, Mr. Yadav required the party’s legislative candidates to submit applications and undergo vetting, even the party’s established power brokers. He vetoed several candidates with criminal records and elevated candidates with clean reputations, including an academic from the state capital, Lucknow, who would win in an upset.

Mr. Yadav was careful not to forget his roots, though. He usually insisted on speaking in Hindi during interviews on India’s English-language television channels, even though he speaks very good English. He also made a point to be accessible to voters, journalists, almost anyone, admitting that he loved glad-handing and meeting people.

It made a stark and appealing contrast to Mr. Gandhi, who is rarely accessible. While Mr. Gandhi arrived at rallies in helicopters, Mr. Yadav, the local boy, traveled on a bicycle or a customized campaign bus, stopping at villages for smaller gatherings.

“I found that cycling was a better way to connect with people rather than having large rallies,” he said. “I was able to meet everyone.”

YET the scale of his party’s victory surprised even Mr. Yadav. Analysts had predicted a split vote and a coalition government, possibly through an alliance of the Samajwadi Party with the Congress Party. But led by Mr. Yadav — and the political organization oiled by his father — the Samajwadi Party won a stunning 224 seats in the state assembly, a comfortable majority that meant a coalition partner was not necessary.

Then the only question was who would be chief minister, father or son. When the younger Mr. Yadav was given the job last week, the Samajwadi Party, once dismissed as a relic of India’s old politics, suddenly possessed an altogether different ingredient: excitement and buzz.

“I’m quite happy and quite excited,” Mr. Yadav said. “But the responsibility is big. This is a state, of course, but this is a country, population-wise.”

At a news conference after his swearing-in this week, Mr. Yadav got an early taste of the pressures and challenges of running India’s poorest but biggest state, as reporters peppered him with questions about his agenda and asked why many of his father’s cronies still held positions of power.

“Our priority will be unemployment, the farmers and law and order,” he said, smiling, as he noted that his party could no longer just act as an indignant opposition.

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REAL ESTATE IN INDIA

INDIAN HEROES

These are the men and women from among Hindus, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jews, and other traditions that are deeply committed to the idea of One India and one people acknowledging the uniqueness of each one of the Indians.

Their work brings people together, their effort is to restore harmony among Indians unlike some lost souls who are hell bent on pitting one Indian against the other.

Lord Krishna had said, whenever the negative forces become stronger in dividing families and disrupt peace and harmony, he will emerge among them to restore sanity, the same idea is reflected in Quran, that God does not deprive his goodness to anyone and sends a peacemaker to every community and nation. After the founding fathers of the nation, these are our real heroes restoring dharma – the righteousness. Dharma is when people get along, mind their own business, live their lives and let others live theirs. God has created all of us and respects each one of us is the highest form of worship.

I salute them for their work and they come from all walks of life. They see you as an Indian and nothing but an Indian. They believe every human should be free to eat, drink, wear or believe whatever he or she wants in the pursuit of their happiness.

Please share stories of such Indians who have made efforts to build a cohesive India, an India where no Indian lives in apprehension, tension or fear of the other.

INDIAN HEROES - NEW FROM 12/20/17

PATRIOTISM

Two of India’s dangerous trends: Misplaced Patriotism and intolerance towards different points of view.

The real heroes of India are those who relentlessly “criticize” the government because they do not want their government to falter and make decisions that will mess up the social structure of the nation. They keep the government rascals on their toes. After all, they are elected to serve us not the other way around. The real heroes rise the nation for the common good of all.

What do the Chamchas on the other hand do? They wear a false badge of patriotism and to them patriotism is oppression of those who differ, and war mongering. They cannot handle criticism of government, they are yes sir, yes sir I lick your chappals. They bring down the nation by keeping their man at helm in a bubble giving him or her false assurance that everything is alright.

I hope the Prime Minister wises up and invites and honors those who criticize him, they are the real supporters of him by reminding him from falling into the pit. He should welcome all those who criticize. He needs to defend the rights of such heroes. The Indian Citizens on the other hand need to make a conscious effort to support those who criticize the government, BJP or Congress or any one.

The test of a successful civilized nation is when every man and woman of India can breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever the hell she or he wants to believe.

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

These are the public service heroes; officers who go against their political bosses to do the right thing for India, i.e, every Indian. We will be developing the list as we go forward. You can send in your entries to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

ABOUT MIKE GHOUSE

Mike Ghouse is committed to his life mission of building cohesive work places, communities and nations. His work is for the Indians and Americans where each one of the 322 million Americans should feel secure without apprehension or fear of the other.

He is one of the 5 people in the world who is actively pursuing research, activism and teaching the subject of Pluralism. Just Google and find a tremendous amount of work on pluralism in religion, politics, society and culture. Mike defines Pluralism as an attitude of “respecting the otherness of other” and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us.

He is a pluralist, thinker, writer, activist and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, politics, Islam, human rights and foreign policy including India and Israel-Palestine. He is a news maker, interfaith wedding officiant and a community consultant and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Dr. Ghouse has appeared in over 300 National TV shows and is a frequent guest with Hannity and Varney shows at Fox News along with others. He has over 1000 hours of Radio Shows of which 700 were dedicated to interfaith and pluralism. Over 3500 articles have been published of which a 1000 were on politics, foreign policy, sports and movies, a 1500 for interfaith and pluralism matters and a 1000 plus on Islam. In addition Mike has conducted workshops on Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between.

Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is at www.Centerforpluralism.com and www.WorldMuslimCongress.org

Welcome

We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility.I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American. Please join me in the discovery of India on a daily basis, as time permits and share the wealth of knowledge you have on this forum.

DallasIndians@yahoogroups.com is the information exchange center for the Indian community living in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex. You can join by sending an email to: DallasIndians-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com